Endoscopic radial artery harvesting is a favourable harvesting technique which provides excellent cosmetic result and low incidence of incision related complications, however the impact of this technique on graft quality is less well-explained. We sought to evaluate the impact of harvesting technique on graft patency and relevant clinical outcomes in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG).

A systematic literature search was conducted to identify publications containing comparisons between different sampling skills in CABG, data was extracted and analysed with Revman, Downs and Black score was applied to evaluate the methodological quality of included studies.

Ten studies containing 2782 patients were undertaken, the quality was generally acceptable. Pooled analysis results indicate endoscopic radial artery harvesting was associated with a lower incidence of wound infection and a similar incidence of haematoma formation compared with open harvesting. The difference in graft patency and all-cause mortality was insignificant between two cohorts.

Endoscopic radial artery harvesting is a safe technique and provides equivalent graft patency as compared with open harvesting, further investigation is required to confirm the aforementioned conclusion and evaluate the impact of harvesting technique on hand sensory and motor function.